Gill Kirk, writer

Category: Learning

  • Writing Without Whips

    Writers need focus. And kindness. Lots of kindness.

  • The Stuff I Do (yippee)

    Wonderful week last week, with lots of goodies coming at once. On Tuesday, I reviewed Michael Boyd (former RSC Artistic Director)’s new show, The Open House, for Bristol 24/7. You can read the review here. Then I popped on a train, feeling all intercontinentally high-flyin’, wrote my review on the tracks & when I woke…

  • No new stories? Then you’re never alone!

    Way, way back, many moons ago, I spent a disproportionate amount of my degree studying fairy tale, folk lore, myth and language. A very lucky soul, I was. I ended up examining  the evolution of one character in particular – Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s half-sister. A powerful woman in every version of the tale,…

  • Tales From The Midden

    Tales From The Midden

    I’m doing The Artist’s Way all over again, straight after completing the 1st go-round. And now, just reading The Artist’s Way for Parents, I’ve had an inspiration. JK Rowling said she only got Harry Potter writ because she did no housework. One of the many reasons she has my huge respect. My inner police-people are…

  • 9 1/2 weeks. OK, 12. But I couldn’t resist.

    9 1/2 weeks. OK, 12. But I couldn’t resist.

    If you were born after maybe 1975, you might not get it. But if you’re roughly my age (a grand forty-four and a half) you might now be hearing a dodgy John Taylor* theme tune and getting memory-whiffs of a tousled, sweaty Kim Basinger staring in a confused fashion at all the identical rows of…

  • Fingery-Pokery – The Artist’s Way

    I heard about it. I saw it in a friend’s vast personal library. He said “Here, take it.” It sat on my shelf for a year. I started it. Wow. I’m reading / doing / taking / following The Artist’s Way. It’s a course in a book. I’m fed up of feeling my work is…

  • “weird” “new” “habits”

    “weird” “new” “habits”

    It was when I joked, “Yep, it makes me feel like a MAN!” and then the women laughed knowingly that I realised I’d surprised myself… When I’m not doing fee-paying client work over here, I’m parenting or writing. Or researching for the writing. Or applying for grants, entering competitions…you get it. This time last year…

  • Some sharin’ – great TV writing resources

    All quiet on this south-western front of late, I know. I’ve been putting my 6-hour working days (school hours for small ones) to good writing use, then throwing in some extra after beddy-byes. All guns have been pointing at a new TV pilot, strengthening my screenwriting muscles and learning everywhere I can. So, without giving…

  • The Awful Art of Unwriting

    I’m not entirely sure why but er, um, I haven’t written a speculative  screenplay (plays, I have done) for err, um, five years. There you go. I have no more secrets. What the merry heave-ho have I been doing? ‘Cos I’m pretty sure I call myself a writer a lot of the time. There’s been…

  • Never quiet; always learning

    Never quiet; always learning

    Gosh – the sediment from Glitter Knickers has just about settled on the bottom of the jar.  The feedback just flowed in – thank you very much indeed, everyone – and in the next couple of weeks, it’s my job to package that up, with a whole load of metrics for The Next Stage. Watch this space. Meanwhile,…

  • Rewriting..?!

    I’m not going to tackle all of this now, but I’ve been inspired to share something with you. One draft does not a writer make. One draft is what John Buchan called the block of stone, from which you create a sculpture. Redrafting is hard. Help is wonderful. I always have help on my scripts,…

  • Taking the helm of the Rondo Writers’ Group

    What IS the collective noun for a group of writers? A murder of crows, a sleuth of bears, a flange of baboons and a flight of dragons. Take your pick what would we like? A blot? A tippex (for writers of a certain age)? A row? A bin? But that’s merely an intro… I’m very,…